The 20 Most Michelin-Starred Cities In The World (PHOTOS)

People have been debating the quality of different towns' food as long as there's been permanent settlement. Back in old Babylonia, there were probably great arguments over who had the best flatbreads, Ur or Sumer. But until recently, it was hard to agree on a global standard by which to compare cities across the world. Every city has its own restaurant critic -- but can you really judge four stars from the New York Times the same way you judge four bowls of soup from Singapore's Makansutra guide? Of course not.

But there is one guide that might hold a tentative key: Michelin. The tire company has gotten flack in recent years, from all sorts of parties -- it's been criticized for its lack of financial responsibility and for failing to understand many markets. But at the same time, the Red Guide has done a remarkable job expanding its restaurant coverage beyond Europe and into Asia and North America. By doing so, it has become a global standard for ranking restaurants. Say what you will about Franco-centrism and ludicrous expense, a restaurant with three Michelin stars is going to be very good, if not necessarily amazing.

That's why we at HuffPost Food have decided to rank world cities on the basis of Michelin stars per capita. We've excluded cities with fewer than 100,000 residents, because the data get noisy in small towns... Does Fontjoncouse really deserve the title of the best restaurant town in the world, merely because it's the smallest hamlet with a three-star restaurant? No. And changes in the stars at individual restaurants in small towns could dramatically change that city's ranking. If Cyrus, in Healdsburg, CA, were to get its third star next year, for example, that would increase the town's per capita stars from 17 to 78, without really changing Healdsburg's merit as a restaurant town per se.

What we were most interested in, though, were major cities. There were some fascinating results. The big losers were cities in Germanic language-speaking countries. New York, London, Vienna and Berlin all performed badly. (There are a few notable exceptions, though, as you'll see in the slideshow.) The big winners were, unsurprisingly, France, Italy and Japan. Some of their success was tied in with Michelin's priorities and strategy. There isn't a Michelin guide for Johannesburg or Chongqing, so those cities are not eligible for this list. But there's also something to be said for the style of haute cuisine only available in the cities where Michelin has a guide -- and few do that better than the French, Italians and Japanese.

One quick note: We considered New York as one city, with over eight million residents and five boroughs. This gave it a relatively low -- albeit not embarrassing -- ranking, comparable to Amsterdam and Frankfurt. But if we'd let Manhattan stand on its own, it would have had an impressive 4.2 Michelin stars per 100,000 residents, which would place it number seven on the list.

Here is our slideshow of the 20 best restaurant cities in the world, determined by Michelin stars per 100,000 residents. Note: since this post was first published, the data have shifted somewhat. This process has pushed out some cities initially on the list in favor of others. The top nine, at least, are unaffected:

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Dijon's best-known culinary export is its mustard, but its four Michelin-starred restaurants make a good case for making the trek to the source.
Population: 150,576
Michelin Stars: 4
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 2.6
Pictured: A scallop dish at Dijon's one-starred Stephane Derbord.

Reims is best-known for its world-famous Catholic cathedral -- but several acclaimed restaurants, including two-star L'Assiette Champenoise, make it as good a place as any to pray at the alter of the dining room table as well.
Population:188,078
Michelin Stars: 5
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 2.7
Pictured: The exterior of two star restaurant L'Assiette Champenoise.

Modena is at the heart of the Emilia-Romagna region, known for its rustic, pork-centric cuisine. But its most famous restaurant, Osteria Francescana, with two Michelin stars, is anything but earthy. Its chef, Massimo Bottura, is one of the world's foremost practioners of modernist cuisine.
Population: 183,069
Michelin Stars: 5
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 2.7
Pictured: An alarming-looking dish at Osteria Francescana.

Namur, the capital of Wallonia, is one of two Belgian cities to make it on the list; not bad for such a small country.
Population: 108,950
Michelin Stars: 3
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 2.8
Pictured: The dining room at La Bergerie in Namur.

The four Michelin-starred restaurants in Clermont-Ferrand help explain why the tire company chose to build its world headquarters in a relatively small city in the middle of France.
Population: 140,700
Michelin Stars: 4
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 2.8
Pictured: A seafood dish at one-starred Restaurant LeClerc in Clermont-Ferrand

San Francisco, the sole American city to make the list, got a boost in 2012 from the elevations of Benu and Saison to two-star status -- meaning the city makes the list even without the help of suburban all-stars Manresa, the Restaurant at Meadowood and the French Laundry. Incidentally, including these restaurants and tallying a score for the Bay Area as a whole wouldn't do San Francisco any favors. Because the surrounding area is much more populous than San Francisco proper, the Bay Area has a measly per capita star count of 0.8 -- lower than London.
Population: 805,235
Michelin Stars: 23
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 2.9
Pictured: A dish of duck, glutinous rice stuffing and fermented pepper at Benu

Switzerland claims to be the country with the most Michelin stars per capita -- but even in such distinguished company, Basel is special. Best known for its annual art festival, Basel is also a great place to eat, with four Michelin-starred restaurants.
Population: 169,536
Michelin Stars: 5
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 3.0
Pictured: The terrace at the Cheval Blanc, which holds two stars.

People don't speak of Marbella, in far southern Andalusia, in the reverential tone they save for the Basque country or Barcelona, its better known culinary capitals in the north. But maybe they should. With three restaurants in the Red Guide -- including the hypermodernist Calima, headed by Dino Garcia -- it more than holds its own.
Population: 124,332
Michelin Stars: 4
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 3.2
Pictured: Marbella's architecture isn't uniformly beautiful, but its Mediterranean coastline definitely is.

Osakan cuisine is most famous for low-brow dishes like takoyaki (octopus balls) and okonomiyaki (savory pancakes). But its status as one of the commercial capitals of Japan allows it to support three restaurants with three Michelin stars, including the pioneering Hajime, which opened in just 2008.
Population: 2,668,113
Michelin Stars: 95
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 3.6
Pictured: Takoyaki from an eatery in Osaka.

What can be said about eating in Paris that hasn't already been said? Almost nothing. It all started here -- the entire concept of the modern haute gastronomic restaurant has its roots in Paris. It's not the tops on a per capita basis, but Parisian chefs have taken over restaurants throughout the world -- and many non-Parisian chefs have stayed in the City of Lights to hone their craft. Though most think of the city as a bulwark of traditional French cuisine, recent years have seen an influx of young new talent.
Population: 2,193,031
Michelin Stars: 85
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 3.9
Pictured: Yannick Alleno's magnificent three star restaurant Le Meurice.

The fame of the wine in the Bordeaux region gives the city's restaurants a great deal to live up to. But the city's whopping eight Michelin-starred eateries show that its chefs can more than meet the challenge.
Population: 250,082
Michelin Stars: 9
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 4.0
Pictured: Two star standard bearer Le Saint-James, on the outskirts of town.

If you're a gastronomically-inclined tourist in Austria, avoid Vienna -- it had the lowest per-capita Michelin star ranking of any major city we ranked. Instead, stick with Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart. Six Michelin-starred restaurants make it the unofficial culinary capital of the Alps.
Population: 147,571
Michelin Stars: 6
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 4.1
Pictured: Salzburg's famous architecture.

Lyon has as strong a claim as Paris to the title of culinary nerve center of France. Though its far-smaller economy can't support as many top-end restaurants, it was the birthplace of the cuisine nouvelle movement, which launched every major trend since then. The city's culinary patron saint is the world-famous Paul Bocuse. His restaurant is said to have declined in quality over the past few decades -- but it has not yet slipped from three-star status.
Population: 483,181
Michelin Stars: 20
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 4.1
Pictured: Bocuse the man standing in front of Bocuse the restaurant.

Who would have thought, fifteen years ago, when Kobe was recovering from one of the most catastrophic earthquakes of all time, that the city would not only recover, but one day rank as the seventh-best restaurant city in the world? With a shocking 64 Michelin stars, though, it's well-deserved.
Population: 1,533,852
Michelin Stars: 64
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 4.2
Pictured: The city from the hills above it.

The standard bearer in this beautiful old city is the three-starred De Karmeliet, which is known for its rare combination of an unpretentious atmosphere and world-class dining and service.
Population: 116,741
Michelin Stars: 6
Stars Per 100,000 People: 5.1
Pictured: The interior of De Karmeliet.

Bergisch what?! Of all the cities on this list, this is the most mysterious -- but the relatively small city in western Germany supports not one, but two, three-starred restaurants.
Population: 105,723
Michelin Stars: 6
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 5.7
Pictured: A dish at three-star Gourmetrestaurant Lerbach that looks almost too beautiful to eat.

Kamakura, the political capital of Japan in the Middle Ages, is now the country's capital of local food. Its vegetables are non-pareil; it is said that when Alain Ducasse tasted a Kamakura tomato, he declared it the equal of any in the world. So although the city lacks the international superstars of a place like Macau, it more than makes up for it in the overall quantity of good food -- with a whopping ten Michelin-starred restaurants in city limits.
Population: 174,016
Michelin Stars: 10
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 5.7
Pictured: A temple in Kamakura.

Bergamo is the quintessential old Northern Italian town -- think ancient villas loping over hills, surrounded by medieval walls. But it's great food that really sets Bergamo apart -- it's just a a 45-minute drive from Milan, but it puts its larger neighbor to shame with its many top-tier restaurants.
Population: 120,694
Michelin Stars: 8
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 6.6
Pictured: "Fritura di Pesce" at three-star restaurant Da Vittoria.

There are around as many people in San Sebastian, in the Basque autonomous region of Spain, as there are in Knoxville, Tennessee. But that same amount of people supports, in San Sebastian, three restaurants with three Michelin stars, in addition to one restaurant, Murgaritz, with two stars and a global reputation. And unlike some other food destinations, San Sebastian has appealing options even on the lowest end of the culinary spectrum. Its bar snacks, called pintxos, as world-renowned. Some call it the world's best food city. But in terms of Michelin stars, it really can't hold a candle to the number one city on our list.
Population: 186,122
Michelin Stars: 14
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 7.5
Pictured: The "Lenguado con Mamia" at three-star gastronomic temple Arzak.

If there were ever a local style of food that lent itself to Michelin glory, it's Kyoto's famous kaiseki cuisine, in which diners sit in spare, serene rooms and are served course after course of intricately prepared traditional dishes. The stars speak for themselves -- Kyoto, a city the size of San Diego, has seven three-star restaurants. The entire United States has nine. That's in addition to the plethora of distinguished one- and two-star restaurants that make Kyoto, by the standards of this list, the best restaurant city in the world.
Population: 1,465,917
Michelin Stars: 136
Stars Per 100,000 Residents: 9.3
Pictured: The immaculately-designed interior of three-star restaurant Kikunoi.